CAR-NK Cells

Promab Biotechnologies has generated CARs (chimeric antigen receptors) specific for a variety of target antigens, many of which are overexpressed on tumor cells. These target antigens include CD19, CD22, CD133, Her-2, EGFR, Mesothelin, and more (see Table, below). In addition, Promab has modified the CARs in a number of ways to increase their utility, including adding inducible caspase-9 as a safety switch; adding non-immunogenic tags to provide for CAR identification and selection; and using different costimulatory domains to modulate CAR functional responses.

Promab Biotechnologies uses different methods to introduce the CARs into NK cells, including electroporation and viral transduction methods to generate CAR-NK cells. Promab has also generated CAR-T cells and CAR-macrophages for a subset of CARs. The CAR-NK cells are validated using multiple methods, including flow cytometry (to determine the CAR-NK frequency and phenotype), real-time and end-point cytotoxicity assays, cytokine production and checkpoint protein upregulation.

For a negative control, Promab has generated a mock CAR which lacks the target-recognizing scFv domain but can be detected with the Beam-2 antibody. Promab also offers non-transduced T cells as another negative control.